Charles misses out on £60m windfall

THE King and the Treasury have been dealt a multi-million-pound blow as Scotland hangs on to soaring profits from wind farms on Crownowned property.

- Richard Palmer

Its devolved government raked in £60million profits over five years from the Crown Estate Scotland.

An even bigger windfall is in prospect for the estate and the SNP-led administration, with the potential for billions of pounds of investment in floating offshore wind farms.

But the Treasury in London does not currently have plans to raise the £6million it deducts each year from overall funding to reflect the transfer of Crown Estate income to the Holyrood regime.

The Crown Estate is owned by the monarch but they do not control it and the profits have been surrendered by every ruler since 1760 in return for a taxpayer-funded grant.

The £6million charge was the Crown Estate Scotland profit in the final year before devolution but that sum has since grown to £15.7million in 2021-22 the most recent figures published. Meanwhile, the value of the Crown Estate Scotland, which owns the seabed to 12 nautical miles out and half the foreshore, grew by 25 per cent last year to £568.2million. Its profits are meant to impact how the Royal Family is funded.